Sure, there are some dogs (hi, Ellie) who hold their dignity too high to willingly participate in these ridiculous human rituals. Walter says there’s worse ways to spend one’s days than with a full belly, a soft warm bed, and a household of welcoming companions.

(And if you send me a jpg of your holiday-celebrating household companions, yes I will front-page them, too also.)

Apart from happy rescue updates, what’s on the agenda for the day?

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I owe a couple commentors a hat tip for this — If you are looking to make a year-end tax-deductible contribution to a very worth cause, consider throwing a few bucks or bitcoins at the people responsible for the Wayback Machine site:

You have come to the Internet Archive in search of knowledge, or perhaps to find a part of the Web you may have lost.For 20 years through the Wayback Machine, we’ve backed you up. Now we ask for your help in return.

The Internet Archive is a non-profit library with a huge mission: to give everyone access to all knowledge. By making a tax-deductible donation today, you can ensure that everyone has free and open access to information, forever.

The history of libraries is one of loss. Libraries like ours are susceptible to different fault lines: earthquakes, legal regimes, institutional failure.

So this year, we have set a new goal: to create a copy of Internet Archive’s digital collections in another country. We are building the Internet Archive of Canada because lots of copies keeps stuff safe. To achieve our goal, we aim to raise $5 million by January 20, and we need your help to get there.

Right now a generous supporter will match your donation 1‑to‑1. So you can double your impact! For every dollar you donate right now, the Internet Archive will receive $2!…

Gosh, I wonder if there’s any significance to that “January 20” deadline, she said piously.

This blog was talking about The War On Christmas before The War On Christmas was cool. We’ve been waiting ten years for TWOC to become a general election campaign issue. That day has finally come.

While listing the reasons why his father ran for president in an interview published Thursday, Eric Trump pointed to the tree on the White House lawn and claimed it was renamed the “Holiday tree.”

[…..]

“Or, he sees the tree on the White House lawn has been renamed ‘Holiday tree’ instead of ‘Christmas tree.’ I could go on and on for hours. Those are the very things that made my father run, and those are the very things he cares about.”

https://www.balloon-juice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/balloon_juice_header_logo_grey.jpg00Doug!https://www.balloon-juice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/balloon_juice_header_logo_grey.jpgDoug!2016-08-26 15:20:262016-08-26 15:21:52It would be, it would be so nice

https://www.balloon-juice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/balloon_juice_header_logo_grey.jpg00Doug!https://www.balloon-juice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/balloon_juice_header_logo_grey.jpgDoug!2015-11-10 21:50:432015-11-10 21:50:43And so this is Christmas

Our annual year-end reminder that the worst offenders against common civility are the WATBs complaining about “political correctness”. Here’s Jezebel‘s explainer:

Some Starbucks’ customers are outraged over the coffee chain’s new holiday cups, just because they lack a Christmas-themed design. In the past, the company released cups depicting images of snowflakes, reindeer, white doves and ornaments. This year, the cups are plain red — and people are really pissed.

According to the Huffington Post, some Christian customers feel the coffee chain is oppressing their religion. In a viral Facebook post, one gruff-voiced customer dressed like Fred Durst circa 1999 wrote, “Starbucks REMOVED CHRISTMAS from their cups because they hate Jesus,” then brags about “pranking” Starbucks by having them write “Merry Christmas” as his name on the cup. He also flashes a gun he brought into the coffee shop, disregarding Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz’ request that customers no longer bring firearms into their stores, even in states where open carry is permitted…

“In the past, we have told stories with our holiday cups designs,” said Starbucks’ Vice President of Design & Content Jeffrey Fields. “This year we wanted to usher in the holidays with a purity of design that welcomes all of our stories.”

That’s right, folks — a corporate decision to not-take-a-side has been declared offensive by people who insist that a side not taken is a declaration against their side. To quote a line from that book they talk about so much: Jesus wept.

It’s a trivial little holiday-cookie nothing of a story, but the earnest cluelessness of the commentors explaining that Americans of-all-faiths-or-none are entitled to go to a movie and a Chinese restaurant on December 25, because freedom!!!, should be preserved in a time capsule as an example of the Way We Live Now.

If conservatives are serious about this war, they’re going to have make some serious strategic changes. They need a catchy Lee Greenwood war-on-Christmas song. They need to start singing this song or reciting some war on Christmas type manifesto at various public gatherings, the way they do with the Pledge Of Allegiance. Finally, and they must have known this for years, atheists don’t make for good scapegoats. There just isn’t enough history there. Atheists didn’t kill Jesus or institute Sharia law throughout the suburbs of Detroit. Make it about the Muslims and the Jews and maybe even the Hindus and you’ll see better results.

https://www.balloon-juice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/balloon_juice_header_logo_grey.jpg00Doug!https://www.balloon-juice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/balloon_juice_header_logo_grey.jpgDoug!2013-11-09 12:04:132013-11-09 12:09:34Oh God I could do better than that (you betcha)